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Tamiya Bf 109-E4/E7 Tropical


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Good evening guys, I hope everyone is well! I decided to share the photos of the build I finished today, which as the title suggests is Tamiya's Bf-109 E-4/7 Tropical, 8 / JG 27 in 1/48th scale.

 

 

I attempted to do a work in progress section for this build, however forgot to upload the photos until I had just finished painting the model and so it was a bit of a short lived work in progress with only one update before completion. However as mentioned in the work in progress update, I chose to build this after watching a youtuber by the name of Keeto who was using fillable acrylic pens to do mottling work which I found pretty interesting, he made it look quite straight forward, and until I build up the courage to re- try my hand at Luftwaffe mottling, I thought this could be my substitute.  I got the Luftwaffe paint set by AK interactive to test out their paints as I had never bought one of their sets prior to this, and was really impressed with them. I felt their colours looked pretty accurate to me and the paint sprayed really nicely and also flowed out the pen well after a bit of testing with thinners. The only downside for me with this approach to mottling is that it looks too well painted, rather than the usual misty outline on usual mottling, but I still kind of like this even though its not totally accurate.

 

Its safe to say, I think I will continue to use these pens, especially being that they're around £3 or so on amazon, I've got my eye on a Japanese scheme to use with the pen next, I think its a Ki-47?

 

I loved the build, I was making it to fill in the gaps between making my Eurofighter Typhoon, however it took over pretty quickly and now the Typhoon has been put aside as and when I feel like working on it. It was really refreshing to go back to a Tamiya kit after working on some models that have been eating away at my time. 

 

Due to the model being a bit of a test for the Acrylic pen, I thought i'd try a few different things to get a different finish, this being trying to get an interesting weathered effect. I feel it came out alright but next time, i'd be a bit more refrained rather than taking a piece of sponge and splatting away at the painted model, you can see in  the photos it didn't go completely to plan. The only problem I had which was a big mistake on my part was after I put an enamel wash over the kit. I decided to use Vallejo's varnishes inbetween paint layers rather than Klear which is my usual go to and I think this might have been what caused the problem... 

Once the wash had dried after about 10 minutes or so, I got an old rag out to start rubbing the excess off and was having no luck, I had ran out of my enamel thinners and haven't bothered buying any more since as I never usually have an issue with the washes but started worrying, it looked a complete mess. I came on here for previous articles on alternatives to get the wash off and hoping that I wouldn't have to drive into town to go to my local hobby store. Luckily I read that I could use white spirit to try and fix it; it kind of did the trick but ate away at some of the varnish and subsequently a bit of the paint underneath which is why there are some pretty heavy stains on the model. Either way, I think the White Spirit saved the model from being a total disaster even with a few messy marks left behind. I think, with my next paycheck the first thing im gonna do is buy some new varnishes (let me know if anyone has what they feel is the best) as I always seem to have issues with Vallejo's.

 

 

I hope you all enjoy, let me know on any fixes to the issues I had if you like or any criticism, its all appriciated, im still working on my finishing with models.

 

 

Thanks everyone, stay safe!

 

Ryan

 

20200919_210029 20200919_210024 20200919_210008 20200919_210002 20200919_205951 20200919_210046 20200916_204246 20200905_133247

 

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Awesome. 

 

I've literally just bought this pen too with the intention of using it on a Macchi c.205 and an tropical E4 like you have. Think I watched some of the same videos. Any tips regarding thinning/ consistency for the pen, general use of the pen?

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On 9/19/2020 at 10:39 PM, Murewa said:

Awesome. 

 

I've literally just bought this pen too with the intention of using it on a Macchi c.205 and an tropical E4 like you have. Think I watched some of the same videos. Any tips regarding thinning/ consistency for the pen, general use of the pen?

sorry for the late reply mate, the only real tips I can give are to not press the pen on the model surface to get the paint flowing again, but to press it on a piece of cardboard of something similar as it'll leave you with a blob of paint; the same goes for after pressing the nib down on the cardboard, make sure you havent got a blob of paint on the end of the nib or it'll pool up on your model. 

 

I'd say in terms of thinning the paint, if you got the 0.4mm nib, its actually quite forgiving, i was thinking about getting a smaller version but I reckon I would have had a lot of issues with getting the paint to flow. But, if you thin your paint at about 50/50 to thinners its a good starting point. I found that it takes a couples of goes over to get the paint looking uniform for the mottle; the first coat is quite transparent, but when its dry that gives you a good base and shape to build up another layer and from there you can do touch ups accordingly. 

 

The only other thing is, providing you're using good paint which im guessing most are for the most part anyway now, don't get disheartened if when you go for the second layer it looks a bit uneven. It levels out nicely when you find the paint consistency that works for you, and with a clear coat over the top I think, at least in my own opinion, it comes out pretty even to the base colour.

 

Hope this helps! The Macchi c.205 is a pretty awesome looking aircraft.

 

Ryan 

 

 

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On 21/09/2020 at 22:24, RiotRolo said:

sorry for the late reply mate, the only real tips I can give are to not press the pen on the model surface to get the paint flowing again, but to press it on a piece of cardboard of something similar as it'll leave you with a blob of paint; the same goes for after pressing the nib down on the cardboard, make sure you havent got a blob of paint on the end of the nib or it'll pool up on your model. 

 

I'd say in terms of thinning the paint, if you got the 0.4mm nib, its actually quite forgiving, i was thinking about getting a smaller version but I reckon I would have had a lot of issues with getting the paint to flow. But, if you thin your paint at about 50/50 to thinners its a good starting point. I found that it takes a couples of goes over to get the paint looking uniform for the mottle; the first coat is quite transparent, but when its dry that gives you a good base and shape to build up another layer and from there you can do touch ups accordingly. 

 

The only other thing is, providing you're using good paint which im guessing most are for the most part anyway now, don't get disheartened if when you go for the second layer it looks a bit uneven. It levels out nicely when you find the paint consistency that works for you, and with a clear coat over the top I think, at least in my own opinion, it comes out pretty even to the base colour.

 

Hope this helps! The Macchi c.205 is a pretty awesome looking aircraft.

 

Ryan 

Cool, I'll keep those tips in mind! I've got .5 and .7 nibs to try. 

 

Did you have to do it in one sitting with each nib? Are they reusable with the same colour ...  say a few nights in a row? ( I struggle to get decent length sessions for big jobs in one go with a toddler and full time teaching job... scuppered my attempt at hairspray chipping recently). You used .4? Didn't know which was best so got the .7 and .5 pack. .7 there's 5 of them but just 2 in the .5 pack, maybe those will be best. 

Looking forward to the 205 ... very different direction for me, starting a good year or so focus on the Med/Malta. I really wanted a 202 ideally but my dad bought me a 205 as a Christmas present (close enough) ... so that'll make do for the moment. If I really enjoy the pen and the pattern maybe I'll do a 202 too. 

 

Cheers dude. 

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On 9/23/2020 at 8:36 PM, Murewa said:

Cool, I'll keep those tips in mind! I've got .5 and .7 nibs to try. 

 

Did you have to do it in one sitting with each nib? Are they reusable with the same colour ...  say a few nights in a row? ( I struggle to get decent length sessions for big jobs in one go with a toddler and full time teaching job... scuppered my attempt at hairspray chipping recently). You used .4? Didn't know which was best so got the .7 and .5 pack. .7 there's 5 of them but just 2 in the .5 pack, maybe those will be best. 

Looking forward to the 205 ... very different direction for me, starting a good year or so focus on the Med/Malta. I really wanted a 202 ideally but my dad bought me a 205 as a Christmas present (close enough) ... so that'll make do for the moment. If I really enjoy the pen and the pattern maybe I'll do a 202 too. 

 

Cheers dude. 

I'll try and double check soon, but i think it was 0.4, I got mine singularly, I didnt notice an option for .5 or .7 when I was looking, but saying that I just hopped on amazon and got the first one by the brand I had watched the video about. Im sure either will work though. 

 

I kind of know what you mean, obviously not as hard work as a toddler but we just got a new puppy and she's pretty hard work so finding time to do models is tought. I did mine over a weekend, from friday to sunday so from my experience, it should be all fine. All I did after using it was to wipe the nib with thinner to get any paint off, and put it with the nib facing up so the paint could pool at the bottom of the pen. I always had about 2cm of thinned paint in it and kept the cap on so i dont think theres much of a way for it to really dry out. 

 

I cleaned mine up when I was completely done with water followed by airbrush cleaner. Its still a bit stained on the little foam part which I guess is used to stop the paint running out all in one go? It came up nice, so it should work again. 

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